Sunday 19 April 2015

Pilgrim to the Pollack

If you've ever read any of my stuff before then you'll know I love fishing in the borders of Scotland. For me there's nothing like an early morning run up the road to the rocky coastline that stretches for miles around the small town of Eyemouth and the cliffs of St Abbs.

It's early days for summer sport at the time of writing, fishing really takes off between May to October with cod, pollack, wrasse, coalfish, mackerel and rare species like ling, conger and wolfish making an appearance from time to time.

Mid April and settled weather the sea becomes crystal clear and is perfect for lure fishing!  The first fish to target in spring are coalfish and pollack before the main influx of summer species.

First lure session of the year, 6am start at Eyemouth.  I love this time of year with a full summer ahead to look forward to.


I walked along the coast to a low water rock mark where I'd get around four hours of fishing.  Second cast and a lovely coalfish of a pound and a half smashed into my orange delta eel lure, get in!!!  Things were slow however and in my remaining time on the mark I only caught a couple of coalfish of a similiar size.  It was time to move on and hit St Abbs were I was certain there'd be more pollack action.

To fish at the bottom of St Abbs cliffs,  you'll need a head for heights, have a large amount of billy goat dna in your genes and most importantly wear the correct studded footwear to scale the cliffs.

Not a place for the inexperienced, first timer, I'm afraid to say.  In the past I've taken along other anglers keen to have a crack here but one look over the cliff edge and many go white as a sheet often uttering certain expletives that I can't put in my blog. @!$@!!!@@

So to my choice of lure for east coast pollack, 90mm delta eels 2/0 hook size in luminous green or orange. Hard lures like the 60g silver stinger in the center of the pic often pick out the larger fish.  I don't work for any lure companies unlike others with blogs.  Trust me this is my honest assessment of what works best here in my experience.  Float, fished sandeel, ragworm or mackerel strip is also fantastic as is spun frozen sandeel!


An offshore wind and flat calm seas with sunny weather is the ideal time to fish this area and take in the breath taking scenery.

Today I was blessed with perfect weather, zero wind and a warm sun on my back. One pollack would be enough to make my day. I ended up with five to 3lb on lures and float fished mackerel strip, along with my coalfish earlier, not bad for April at all!

Pollack pics






A cracking result I'm sure you'll agree. All fish I catch are photographed, given the respect they deserve and returned.  So yes! my pilgrimage to the pollack was blessed by the Saint himself. Tightlines! 

Warning: David has over twenty five years experience fishing this area.  First time anglers should seek out an experienced guide, wear suitable footwear, highly visible clothing, have respect for nesting birds and let others know exactly where you are and when you are expected back.  Mobile phone coverage is limited in the area.


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